San Bernardino mass shooters Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook are seen in a surveillance image as they pass through O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook blasted a federal magistrate’s order to hack into the work iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two people responsible for the Dec. 2 terrorist attack on the Inland Regional Center, saying the order endangers privacy for millions of customers.

“People use (smartphones) to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going,” Cook’s open letter, posted on Apple’s website Wednesday morning, reads in part.

“For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.”

But officials have been stymied trying to get into Farook’s work cellphone.

Apple was “shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December,” Cook wrote, adding his company has complied with other federal requests related to the investigation.

“When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal,” he wrote.

“The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession,” Cook wrote.

“The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a back door. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.”

“If the FBI can force Apple to hack into its customers’ devices, then so too can every repressive regime in the rest of the world,” Alex Abdo, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in an ACLU statement. “Apple deserves praise for standing up for its right to offer secure devices to all of its customers.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation echoed those concerns:

“The U.S. government wants us to trust that it won’t misuse this power,” EFF Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Kurt Opsahl wrote on the organization’s website. “But we can all imagine the myriad ways this new authority could be abused. Even if you trust the U.S. government, once this master key is created, governments around the world will surely demand that Apple undermine the security of their citizens as well.”

Law enforcement officials have long complained about their inability to access the encrypted contents on suspects’ smartphones. Apple has encrypted the contents of its iPhone smartphones since 2014, and only those who know a user’s pass code — which federal officials do not, in this case — can access the data therein. Before 2014, Apple could use an extraction tool that would physically plug into the phone and let it to respond to search warrant requests.

Farook’s iPhone, a work phone owned by San Bernardino County, may have a self-destruct feature enabled that will erase all of the phone’s data if too many unsuccessful attempts are made to unlock it. If Apple complies with Pym’s order to create a way to bypass the self-destruct feature, the FBI would be able to rapidly try different combinations to find the pass code through what’s known as “brute force” in cryptography.

Investigators say Farook’s work phone may contain clues to where he and his wife traveled and with whom they communicated, and it could shed light on a still unaccounted stretch of 18 minutes in the Dec. 2 timeline for Farook and Malik.

Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He’s been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he’s covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He’s covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.